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War Memorial
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William Arthur Fielding

William Arthur Fielding was born in Laidley Queensland on 30 April 1879
Service Number 96, William Arthur Fielding, 5th (Queensland Imperial Bushmen) Contingent and his brother, Service Number 178 Ernest Victor Fielding, 1st Queensland Mounted Infantry, both left for the Boer War from Fort Lytton Brisbane. Ernest was invalided home in 1900.

Corporal William Arthur Fielding was part of the Contingent of 503 officers and men, and 450 horses that departed in the transport ship ‘Templemore’ on 6 March 1901, arriving in Port Elizabeth on the 1st of April. His rate of pay was 5 Shillings, plus 1 Shilling Colonial Allowance, per day. An extra draft of 26 officers and 100 horses sailed from Brisbane on 10 March 1901 and joined the main Contingent at Pretoria in the Transvaal.

The Contingent saw significant fighting, including Onverwacht on 4 January 1902 where a large number were captured and subsequently released when the Boers retreated. His son Bill said, “my father rarely talked about the war, as he was far from impressed with the British Army Officers and their relationship with Aussies and treatment of Boer women and children.”

After the end of fighting he, with other selected men from the Contingent, boarded a ship at Cape Town and headed for England to participate in the celebration of the Coronation of Edward V11 in mid-1902.

Following the Coronation and a short holiday in continental Europe, William visited his father’s birthplace of Crediton to visit relatives, before returning to Australia on the German vessel ‘Oldenburg’.

On discharge he returned to the family farm at Cedar Glen before leaving to work as a wheat share farmer on the Darling Downs. William married Elizabeth Polkinghorne in 1908 in Toowoomba before moving to Proserpine to commence share farming in the sugar cane industry.

He was active in local politics as a Councillor, supported political candidates at elections and was himself a candidate for the Senate in the 1922 election. A firm supporter of primary producer organisations throughout Queensland, his oratory skill was very much in demand during political elections. He worked regularly in the Maranoa electorate, three times the size of Victoria, where he received remarkable assistance from John Jackson.

John Jackson was a successful grazier with stock and station agencies in Surat and St. George, and owned and flew his own aircraft for pleasure and business. The aircraft enabled him to extend his business activities and fly Bill’s father to meetings all over the electorate. Bill had, as a prized possession, photos of the plane.

Service Number 493 John Jackson DFC MID had joined the RAAF in October 1939 and flew in the Middle East as a fighter pilot. His records show that he downed three enemy bombers and destroyed a further eight around Benghazi, Libya. As a Squadron Leader of 75 Squadron based in Port Moresby, he was killed in action on 24 April 1942 in New Guinea.

William, in World War 2 at the age of 63, joined the Volunteer Defence Corps as Lance Corporal Q 140436 on 7 March 1942 and voluntarily discharged on 23 July 1943